Travel Bloggers lie & Mislead – use your own brains

I have been at this whole travel thing for a while now – nearly 12 years, in fact. And in these twelve years, I've noticed a trend that has remained fairly constant throughout all the travel blogs and Instagram accounts of rather huge bloggers: the insistence that you'll only ever be happy and fulfilled if you quit your job to travel the world.

While many cubicle dwellers probably do dream about handing in their two-weeks notice in order to go wandering their lust around the globe, there are plenty of others for whom that's either just not feasible, or who simply don't have the desire to leave their current lifestyle behind in order to travel.

And I just wanted to say today that that's okay.

Sure, I love the location-independent life that I've been lucky enough to be able to build for myself, but I would never tell someone else that this is the only route to happiness and a travel-filled life. I never truly “quit my job to travel,” mostly because I never felt comfortable enough to do so – and I also realized fairly early in my travel career that being a digital nomad without a home was not the lifestyle for me, not for anybody in a long run.

I fairly believe that quitting a job without anything in hand for future, just to travel can be dangerous, here are few reasons maybe shouldn't do that

1.  Travel is not cheap

There's no way around it: travel costs money. And, depending on where in the world you want to travel, the amount of money required can balloon exponentially (I'm looking at you, America and the UK!). Unless you've spent years saving up money in order to take a long-term dream trip, chances are it's not going to be financially feasible for you to quit your job to travel.

And this is fine! Quitting a job to travel when you aren't financially able to do so just isn't smart. I can tell you from personal experience that stressing about money on the road takes away from your enjoyment of your travels.

2. Remote work isn't for everyone

Many people will tell you that, in order to afford the digital nomad lifestyle, you just need to get a job that will let you work remotely. And, while this is good advice in theory, the reality is that it's not always easy to just “get a remote job.” Many remote jobs still require you to work a certain number of hours per day – and sometimes even a specific set of hours per day. Remote work can also be challenging if you've never been your own boss before. Do you know how difficult it can be to get motivated when you have the freedom to work in your pajamas and check Facebook whenever you want??

And, when it comes down to it, some people actually do enjoy working in a corporate or office environment with a set routine every day. Maybe it's not everyone's dream to work in a cubicle, but I don't think anyone has the right to judge people who do really like things like set work hours, a steady paycheck, health benefits, and a retirement plan.

3. Long-term travel isn't for everyone

Like I mentioned before, I discovered a while ago that long-term travel and I just don't mix. Even though at one point I assumed I would be perfectly happy to travel indefinitely, I learned that a state of constant movement just wore me out and actually made me a little unhappy. I really *like* having a home base and familiar things to return to after being away for a while. My travel style, it turns out, is one more suited to shorter adventures.

Many bloggers and digital nomads will tell you that you can't truly “travel” on shorter trips, and that you need to spend a lot of time in a place to truly experience it. And while it is true that you'll probably never feel like a local in a destination if you only stay for a few days, it doesn't mean that one travel style is inherently better than the other. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes and interests, and this means that one travel style doesn't fit all.

So if you feel like the only way to “really travel” is to quit your job, pack a backpack, and hit the road forever, I'm here to tell you that that definitely is not the only way. Think before you even try that.

4. You don't *have* to travel in order to be fulfilled

Lastly, this whole post kind of assumes that you do actually want to travel, or that you feel that your life will be more fulfilled if you go out and explore the world. This has certainly been true for me, but it would be naive and maybe even ignorant of me to assume that this is true of everyone.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

It's a good quote, to be sure, but it actually kind of bothers me. If you think about, it basically suggests that people who don't travel are uneducated and close-minded; that they're somehow missing something vital in their lives if they don't travel.

But I'm calling bullshit on this one.

Travel is not a priority for everyone, and not all people would be upset if they never left their home country, state, or even city. And yet we're supposed to look down on people for this? That's just silly.

I do think that travel helps break down prejudices and can teach us a lot about the world, but I don't think it's fair to judge people for whom traveling just isn't important.

For me, traveling and running this blog help me feel fulfilled. But for other people, working a 9-to-5 and raising a family might be the things that make them feel fulfilled. And neither scenario is “better” than the other.

So if you've never been inspired by all those “I quit my job to travel the world” posts, that's totally fine. That doesn't have to be your path. Everybody is made differently, everybody is in a different situation, everybody looks life and success in different way, and everybody has a different way of looking and living life. While you are happy in trekking a cliff, he might be trekking a new scale in building an empire. Which is also a perfect journey? Isn’t it?